» Keep your politics but change your message so it seems your politics more closely line up with the voters.

» Change your voters.

Moderate Republicans are urging their party to change, one example being a newfound appreciation for real immigration reform.

Conservative-base Republicans are urging a rebranding of their product, one example being the expected election next month of former state Assembly and Senate Minority Leader Jim Brulte as chairman of the state Republican Party. Brulte thinks fundraising, recruiting candidates and voter registration are the big issues facing the party.

The most insidious way to win is to either pick your voters or make sure voters leaning toward your opponent are kept away from the voting booth.

We've seen ample attempts at this recently in the form of voter ID laws aimed at ending what's claimed to be - but utterly without evidence - widespread voter fraud. Almost always those laws take aim at poor and minority voters. Almost always when they are challenged in court they are thrown out.

Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear a challenge to the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965, a law spun from the 15th Amendment that says the right to vote "shall not be abridged or denied ... on account of race" and "Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation."

Critics say the law is a relic of the Jim Crow era and that blacks and other minorities are now fully integrated into the political process. They want the "pre-approval" provisions of the law - requiring federal approval before voting laws or boundaries can be changed - tossed.

The court's conservative wing has signaled for years a growing irritation with the Voting Rights Act. But it will be interesting, should all or parts of the law be tossed, how constitutional originalists on the court will parse a ruling that says Congress can't make voting laws when the 15th Amendment says precisely that it can adopt "appropriate legislation."

And should the law be chucked, how will the court justify not protecting voting rights in the face of blatant attempts to keep some Americans away from the polls through long lines, voter ID laws, moving precincts without notification and robocalls to minority voters telling them they can't vote?